January 2017

January 16, 2017

If you asked me a few years ago, or even a few months ago, I would have said that I hate exercise. I don't enjoy running or lifting weights. I don't want to pay for a gym membership or expensive classes. But, this year, I'm changing that! I want to be a runner. I want to attend classes and meet new friends. I want to have the strength to lift heavy things at Home Depot without needing to ask for help. And most importantly, I want to be healthy. I want to be healthy for myself and my family.

I've been working at getting in shape for the past two weeks and I'm finding that I actually do like going to the gym. I like going to yoga classes and challenging myself. I like going for long walks. Now that I've given these activities a real chance, I've found that they are something I enjoy and I want in my life.

Telling my goals to you and the world like this helps keep me super accountable. I like reporting back with success and letting you know that I didn't give up. I thought writing to you about my fitness goals would help me connect with other people working on the same goals and would help me complete my goals. So, here are my goals:

strength my body so I can be more self-sufficient (also I want to lift a roll of sod from Home Depot without help!)

become a runner and complete a 10k

be healthier and take care of my body

feel confident in how my body looks

I've been blessed with a fast metabolism, so getting to a certain size isn't my goal. Talking about weight and size is hard for me, because I'm often told that I don't need to eat healthy (specifically I don't need to do Whole30) or I don't need to go to the gym, because I don't need to lose weight. Being told that on a regular basis feels super weird. I don't want to have illnesses or health issues in the future, because I never exercised. No matter your size, I think it's important to be healthy and to improve yourself, even if others my not see it that way. We all have health goals and we should all be supportive of that.

My main goal is to be healthy. I want to walk around vacation without getting tired of holding my camera. I want to go up flights of stairs without getting winded. I want to open jars and lift things without needing to ask for help. I want to hike to exciting new places. I want to meet new friends who have similar interests. I want to walk on the beach in a swim suit and feel confident. I want to have better posture and stand taller.

I don't have a deadline or an exact plan, but I'm using my Fitbit to help track my progress. I love tracking my walkings and hikes with the app. I use the app daily to keep track of my water goal. Fitbit has a new app called Fitstar and Fitstar Yoga and I love them! I've done a yoga session everyday since I found the app and a workout session multiple times. It syncs with the Fitbit app too, so I don't even need to input any data. Grant and I have gone to the gym a few times, but I don't have my own membership. I want to find a great local gym that offers classes, so I can try new classes and do yoga at the studio.

I'll update you with my progress, favorite recipes, and the workouts that I like best. I think this is going to be a great way for me to help my body be strong and healthy and for me to gain more confidence with my appearance and my abilities. If you're working on this as a goal and need an accountability partner, feel free to email me with your goals! And if you are interested in a Fitbit, I highly recommend it. It's something I use every single day! And if you want to try the Fitstar app for free for a month (you can still do workouts for free or upgrade to the full version) you can use my code (HPFSYM) to try it out.

Feel free to ask me how it's going! It will help me be accountable to my goals! :) xo. Laura

January 14, 2017

I'm so excited to show you my first week of my 2017 scrapbook! I did really good at the first part of last year of keeping up with my weekly spreads, but I still have several weeks to finish. I'm determined this year to stay current with my pages weekly. With owning my own printer now, I think this will be even easier.

This first week of the new year was pretty exciting. In the first week, I got both a new car and a new job, so everything is feeling pretty new and fresh. It feels good!

We wanted to try out the new car on a road trip, so we drove up to Flagstaff for a little day trip. I knew I wanted to use the weather report card from Elle's Studio January kit, so I decided to keep the blue theme for the whole spread. I love that the shades of blue tied together supplies from multiple companies to create a cohesive feel. I'm trying something new this year by switching up with pocket page styles, so I'm excited to see how that goes. I really love the 3x3 pocket pages, so you might end up seeing that a lot in my album.

Grant and I are doing Whole30 together, so I wanted to document some pieces of that in my album. I'm also working on reading (or listening to) one book every week, so you can see that documented as well. I love how Kelly Purkey has a photo of herself at the start of every week, so I wanted to start that as well. I almost never have photos of myself or take photos of myself and I wanted to include them in my album more. I could probably count on one hand the amount of photos of myself in my 2016 scrapbook. I'm hoping this will help me change that.

I really want to make books a priority this year, so I'm still adding them to my albums along with a little review of each book. This year, I'm adding numbers to the photos of the books, so I can track my progress on 52 books for the year. This week, I read my first book, so I added a little gold one. My book review stamp is from Kelly Purkey's shop, but it's sold out. Elle's Studio has a book stamp set in stock, if you've been wanting one! You can find it here.

I gave Flagstaff half of the layout, because it was such a fun day! For this page, I mostly used the January kit from Elle's Studio. The weather report card was such a fun way to document the details from our day trip. I also used the date stamp set to add the temperature and date for the day.

January 13, 2017

Hey all! I wanted to let you know that my first blog post with Elle's Studio was posted today! I'm so excited about being on the Elle's Studio design team and would love it if you checked out the post. It feels like a dream come true to be meeting and working with other creatives who have the same passion for memory keeping as I do. If you're interested, you can see Elle's Studio blog here.

You can check back here tomorrow to see my first week of my 2017 scrapbook. It's so fun to be back at scrapbooking! I have a lot of 2016 to finish up, so look out for those posts too. I'm really happy with the first week of 2017 and I can't wait to show you!

I love being tagged in your posts on Instagram. If you were inspired by my layouts or techniques, mention me in the comments so I can see your work! It's so fun to see what you're working on. My handle is @laura_hager.

Thanks for all your scrapbooking support! It's been fun to connect with other scrapbookers! xo. Laura

January 11, 2017

I'm so excited to start doing the book club again! I have a list of really great books for 2017 that I think we are all going to like. This first one of 2017 I think is going to make a huge difference in my life. The book for February is going to be Chasing Slow by Erin Loechner.

Too often, I feel so busy. Or people will comment on how busy I am. Or when people ask how things are going my first response is "Oh, I'm so busy right now." I don't want that to be how people describe me and I don't want that to be how I label myself. I'm noticing more and more that busy has become an excuse to be rude. Everyone is so busy now, that we don't always have time for manners. I don't want rude to be how I'm viewed either. Another problem with busy is that the people we love suffer. If you're "just so busy," it often means that you don't have time for that person. I don't want that to be my life. I don't want the people I care about to think I don't have time for them. I don't want my life flying by too fast for me to catch up. That's why I'm so excited for this book. I want to slow myself down and really enjoy life. I want to make time for the people and activities that are important to me. I want to life intentionally and gain as much knowledge and experiences as I can.

I think this book is going to be life changing and I'm so excited to get started! If you have already, order your copy (it was just released yesterday!) or put it on hold at the library. Our discussion will be on February 22 and I can't wait!

January 10, 2017

Hey Scrapbookers! I've recently started working with Elle's Studio as a Design Team Member and I wanted to let you know that the January kit and add-ons are live today at 8am PST! There are so many great pieces in the January kit. The kit is only $9.99 today until midnight, then it goes up to $11.99. There are lots of other fun add-ons for this month, like cute puffy heart stickers. Starting this month, Elle's Studio offers subscriptions, so you'll always get the launch day price and never miss a kit! You can sign up here. Also, the date stamp set and acrylic pieces are so fun! Here are my layouts so far in my 2017 scrapbook.I wanted my title page to be neural colors and super motivating. I love stars and constellations, so the star paper is a perfect background. I cut up a 12x12 piece of paper to 9x12 and cut that into 3x3 squares. I kept the paper in order and put it into the page protector. Then, I took them out as I added other elements. This keeps the stars cut off on the edges lined up with each other. I love the black, white, and gray color scheme on this page. I added lots of little message about my goals for the year, like progress for my One Little Word and Year for Awesome for Alison's Year of Awesome project.

This year is all about progress and accomplishing goals for me. I have so much that I want to do for myself and my home, so I'm making goals my top priority. I wanted to give them a special place in my album. I made the page after the title page a space for tracking monthly goals! I love this layout. I used the Elle's Studio date stamp set to stamp out each month. I used the tiny attacher to staple each month to a 3x3 piece of paper that I cut down from a 12x12 sheet. I put one month in every other pocket in the page protector to it fit perfectly into two 9x12 page protectors with 3x3 squares. In the over pockets, I filled them in with black and white motivating pictures. As I complete the monthly goals, I'll switch out the generic black and white photo to a goal specific color photo! I think it's going to be so cool to watch the pages turn more and more colorful as the year progresses. I think it will be a fun way to stay accountable to my goals. And document them as well. This layout was super easy to make!

January 09, 2017

I love driving up to Flagstaff! An exciting part of the new year was getting a new car (well, new to me) and I wanted to take it on a trip! It's a hybrid, so I wanted to test out the mileage and see how it did on roadtrips. I was surprised to get about 30 miles per gallon. Which is a big improvement from my Volvo that gets 20. Don't worry! The Volvo isn't going any where, but it's nice to have something more reliable. Grant and I thought a trip to the snow would be a fun way to try the car out. Here are some pictures from our day up in Flagstaff!

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you love day trips and road trips in the comments! xo. Laura

January 06, 2017

If you don't know, I graduate from college with an undergrad in sustainability. Working towards being sustainable has always been a part of my life and I try to get better every you. Sustainability can be hard. It's hard to know where to start and what will make a difference. When I talk to people about sustainability issues, they usually don't know what they are doing isn't great for the planet. Or they do, but aren't sure on how they can make changes to be more Earth friendly. I'm going to start sharing posts with easy tips and ideas on how you can easily add sustainability into your life.

These three tips are to help you on your household waste and become a little more sustainable! The great thing about all these tips is that your home will also feel more luxurious and comfortable. Win win!

1. Use refillable soap dispensers. I'm noticing that a lot of people, offices, and restaurants are using single use soap dispensers. Especially since foam soap became popular, it's more common to buy one small container of soap at a time. Sure the plastic bottle is recyclable, but the pump is not. They typically have a mix of plastics and metals that can't easily be separated. And while recycling is great, I think not creating waste is even better. My tip is to get a reusable soap dispensers and buy big containers of soap to refill it with. There is less materials being used to create one big bottle versus eight smaller ones. Some of the bulk soap containers are even made with soft plastic that can be recycled with your grocery bags. I think the best thing about this is that the reusable containers look so much better! I love walking into the bathroom and seeing the pretty, matching containers that are free of labels. We starting using Dr. Bronner's soap for just about everything, so we dilute it and create even less waste that way.

2. Using a fabric shower curtain liner. In the past, we were using the $2 plastic shower curtain liners from Target. They were so easy, because when the got gross we could just throw them away! But after doing that twice, I felt really bad about all the waste that was creating. When we needed to pick up a new one, I saw a fabric liner and was so excited! The fabric liner is washable, so when it starts getting dirty I just throw it in the washer with the shower curtain (both are white). Not only is it better for the planet by saving on waste, it feels so much fancier to be in the shower with the pretty fabric liner than the cheap plastic ones. They do cost a little more (about $12-15), but as long as you wash it and keep it looking good, it can last you years! The cheap plastic ones only seemed to last a few months. So it's a little more up front, but you'll be buying less in the years to come.

3. Store food and drink in glass containers. Plastics can be toxic to produce and use. They contain chemicals that aren't good for us or the planet. Instead, switch to glass containers! We use Pyrex container and mason jars for everything. We feel more comfortable heating up our food in the glass and use less dishes buy reheating the food right in the glass containers (I put the glass in before preheating the oven, so it heats up slowly). Pyrex and Ball products are meant to last, so they don't break easy. We take our lunch in them all the time and haven't broken anything yet. The plastic containers were annoying to store and after one leftover pasta dish, they stain forever. In addition to being better for the planet, the glass containers look much fancier. They are all dishwasher safe too (YES!). We have one set of these Pyrex containers (found them cheap at Costco!) and one set of these (similar, we found them cheap at Target!). Between the two, I don't see us needing to buy more food containers for a long time. For drinks on the go, I use Ball jars with Mason Bar Company lids. I have two regular mouth and two wide mouth lids and I love them! The cool part about making drinks in the jars is that they have measurements on the side, so if you need to measure out your ingredients, you can do it without making more dishes.

Spending more money on these products up front may seem more expensive, but since they last so much longer, you're actually saving money. And your house will feel more luxurious too ;)

I hope these tips were helpful! If you have more questions about these products or sustainability, let me know in the comments! xo. Laura

January 04, 2017

Grant and I are doing Whole30 this month and it's going great so far! I think the hardest part of Whole30 is knowing easy, tasty things to eat. Having quick, go-to recipes is essential. Here is how I usually make breakfast while eating Whole30!

What's great about this recipe is that you can just throw in whatever veggies or beans or sausage you have. You make as much or as little as you want by adding or subtracting eggs. This is my usual recipe, but mix it up however you want!

Super Easy Whole30 Breakfast, makes one or more if you add more eggs and veggies

1 tablespoon clarified butter or approved oil

a handful of baby spinach

3 eggs

1 avocado

1 tomato

approved salt and pepper

Start by putting clarifed butter or oil in the pan and tossing in your handful of spinach. To wilt the spinach, you just have to heat it in the pan for a few minutes. Covering it can help. Make sure it stir it often that way the leaves don't get stuck to the pan. While that's cooking, put the three eggs and salt and pepper to taste in the bowl and beat them with a whisk or a fork. I like my eggs fluffy, so I whip them up a decent amount. When the spinach is ready, add the eggs and mix them together. Cook like you would normal scramble eggs.

Then you're done! I add avocado and tomatoes after it's done cooking.

You can add approve sausage or bacon. Other veggies like potatoes, mushrooms, onions, asparagus, broccoli, or whatever you've got!

January 02, 2017

I'm so excited to finally announce that I'm on the 2017 Design Team for Elle's Studio! Elle's Studio products are so fun! The acrylic pieces are my favorite. I'm on the team with a bunch of other talented, creative ladies. Everyone's blogs are linked below. I recommend checking out their blogs if you're looking for an extra dose of inspiration!